Oculus wants to make virtual reality mainstream but the technology is hard to describe with pure marketing – it needs to be experienced.
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At the Best Buy outlets, people taken with the virtual reality devices will be able to pre-order on site. By releasing some devices through Best Buy stores, the company said it will be giving potential users “a first chance to jump into truly immersive VR”, the post states.
Although Oculus still has delayed shipments to deal with from angry customers who preordered Rifts, the headsets will soon become available at several retail outlets, although in extremely limited demand. But a standalone headset with positional tracking will pit it against the Rift, and it is unclear how this development will affect Samsung’s partnership with Oculus.
And that’s important when you consider that VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and its chief competitor, the HTC Vive, cost $600 and $800, respectively, and need to be powered by a $1,000 (minimum) computer.
Additionally, a small number of Oculus Rift headsets will also be sold on Amazon and through Microsoft stores.
However, some find the Rift delays intolerable, especially given that Oculus is no fledgling startup, but part of Facebook Inc – the social network bought it two years ago for US$2 billion. This means they’ll still get a free copy of space shooter EVE: Valkyrie, and they’ll keep their place in line for Oculus’ Touch motion controllers, which should go on sale later this year. Starting May 6th, if you’re interested, simply go to your order status and let us know you’ve purchased a Rift at retail, and we’ll cancel your pre-order. But, at the same time, you better hope that you live near one of these select retail locations.
Rhee said that ultimately they would like to get to the stage where the Holodeck of Star Trek, The Next Generation is recreated, adding that “You enter a holodeck, you’re actually in a virtual world, interacting with all the virtual objects as if you’re living there”.
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